Being positively in love with musical theatre, and having vacationed in NYC a full times, I packed up and moved to the area with no job and no place to stay. Fortunately, it (or maybe I should say I) got things to work out right.
I sort of did the opposite!
In the early 1990s, I lived in Manhattan when I was on a project there. Just under 2 years. I rarely did touristy stuff - to be fair, I was basically commuting every week, but still I should have made time to do “stuff” there.
Now that the kids are grown, we try to visit at least once a year; we went 3 times in 2017 and twice in 2018. We’ve travelled through it several times on the train but that doesn’t count.
When we win the lottery, one of my aims is for us to buy an apartment there and spend a chunk of the year there - alternating between there and Paris and road-tripping in a nice RV of course.
New Orleans! It was our favorite spot for a long weekend for a few years, and then I got a good job offer down here. It’s been about 8 months and we’re loving exploring the city, the restaurants, the festivals…